Welcome to Part Three of our Web Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn your website into an automated traffic machine using WordPress.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress blog, all you have to do to automatically start attracting traffic is add fresh content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we looked at the setup phase. We explained the best way to get started if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your site has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this section, we discuss the configuration stage of the traffic blueprint. We explain how a WordPress site should be configured in order to ensure that web traffic will automatically start flowing as you start to post fresh content on your website.
WordPress Web Traffic Automation Blueprint – Configuration Phase
The ability to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most business owners as one of the greatest challenges they face online. With business getting increasingly more competitive on a global scale, it’s worth exploring any advantage that can help you get better results online.
Being able to generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a huge advantage over other competitors. For businesses, an expertly configured website means having a significant advantage from the very start.
The Configuration Process Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a web-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to explain the difference:
With a WordPress site that has been expertly configured you get a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing tool!
(An expertly configured site gives you a professional web presence and an automated online business marketing system!)
Not only does it take extra labor to build and integrate an automated online business marketing process into your website, but also a special type of expertise.
To illustrate this point here’s an anecdote.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
All was going well in the gizmo manufacturing plant when everything suddenly stopped working.
No one could figure out what has gone wrong and so the plant manager decided to call in an expert to try and fix the problem.
Soon afterwards, the expert arrived and headed immediately towards the main control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for no more than 3 minutes, the expert then produced a teeny-weeny hammer from his tool box and made a single tap near the left edge of the box.
Immediately, the plant came back to life.
The manager was filled with joy as he thanked the expert, who left just as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days after resolving the incident, the manager received a bill for $5,000.
The manager rang back the expert, demanding to know why they were being charged so much for less than 5 minutes work and promptly requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to consistently drive visitors to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when the equipment ground to a halt and no one on the factory floor had the expertise required to get things up and running again? Did the expert in our story not have every right to be compensated fairly for investing years developing the knowledge and expertise that enabled him to assess and avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your WordPress web site set up and configured so all you have to do is publish content to it and search engines, social networking sites and dozens of other traffic-generating web properties would be instantly notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your website?)
Although the solution to many challenges often seems ridiculously simple in hindsight, it rarely is that simple or easy when you are trying to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few basic settings. It requires knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which programs you need to install to add desired functionalities to your site.
- Which third-party services need to be set up to achieve specific outcomes
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured to make sure everything functions to plan, etc.
(Generating web traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem so technically difficult, it can be quite involved. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing a solution, clicking a button, or tweaking some options and settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and much more.
The configuration stage involves the integration of many parts such as your web hosting server, your website or blog, and a number of third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring a few settings in WordPress)
If the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of the activities involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s examine these steps in more detail.
Server Configuration
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your hosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is tweaking settings in your web-hosting account specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the web traffic your website can attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is all about evaluating your needs, planning for bad and good traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like integrating server-level spam protection and preventing security threats, to configuring domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your webhosting settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step is to set up and configure a number of third-party sites.
External Accounts
The basic concept of adding external sites is that all of your content should be posted to one central location (your WordPress site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other parts of your web traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external services to your system, content with links pointing back to your website will be automatically posted to your search, social and aggregator accounts. Your content will then be given added exposure to new audiences and new sources of traffic.
Some of these third-party sites will need to be set up before configuring your WordPress settings to save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your site’s settings:
Google Search Console
(Google Webmaster Tools)
Google Webmasters lets you tell Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with important information, SEO tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your account, use the details with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s traffic performance, SEO, marketing activities, and more, by tracking all user behavior, pages visited, keywords searched for, social media referrals, etc.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you can add your account information to all of your pages in WordPress using plugins and feed data instantly to various other online applications and web properties.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Drive more traffic with Bing Data And Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmasters. Once your account and site details have been set up, you can use your account information with traffic settings in WordPress and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers website owners the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you plan to grow a professional online presence for your business.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which a number of WordPress plugins can access. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll explain how to integrate this into your automated traffic generation system in Part 4 of this article series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site)
You will need to have already set up your social media accounts in order to configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and social bookmarking accounts and get new traffic to your site.
You should set up accounts and profiles with all of the big social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are loads of social sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we discuss some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(You can post your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Sites, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online technology platforms and RSS aggregators that can serve as secondary sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans to suit different user types.
For example, here is a content aggregator site that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your account.
There are various sites and platforms that can be added to your own web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a configuration strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up third-party site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site.
Configuring WordPress
The first step in configuring your site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been set up correctly.
Let’s go over some of the important points.
Global WordPress Settings
By default, WordPress includes a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline can affect your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains a powerful and often overlooked built-in traffic notification system …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings Screen)
As stated in the Update Services section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you have intentionally chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services text box
By default, only one service is listed …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically – just add a list of update services to this section …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence web traffic. For example, choosing to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS readers and blog post digests, and could affect someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to read the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting here as far as your traffic system is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to instantly ping various update services when a new post is published (see Writing Settings above). Unless you have a specific reason to discourage search engines from visiting your site, make sure this box is left unticked …
(Settings Menu – Reading Settings Section)
Discussion Settings
Although this section is mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to blogs linked to from your posts, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Global Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks allow you to create search engine-friendly URLs …
(WordPress Settings – Permalink Settings)
The examples below show some of the ways your SEO-friendly URLs can be configured …
(Configuring permalinks)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using permalinks in WordPress here: Improve Your WordPress SEO With SEO-Friendly URLs
WordPress – Traffic Plugins
The WordPress developer community makes available plugins that help to add almost every type of functionality to your site, including traffic generation.
Let’s take a brief look at some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your site for dealing with the effects of both good traffic and bad traffic. No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, you simply cannot ignore the importance of website security.
(Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to malicious attacks from hackers and bots.
Go here to learn more:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving your site’s SEO …
(WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO help drive more traffic by improving your website’s SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO. When properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines to find and index, it allows you to specify how your content will show up in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help drive more traffic to your site, especially if you provide content that adds real value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
You can add social sharing features to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins.
Many social share plugins let you select which sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up custom notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which visitors can unlock by linking or tweeting your page.
Configuring Settings – WP Themes
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help you drive more traffic to your site.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the design and layout of your website, many themes also give you built-in options for improving search optimization and site navigation structure for faster indexing, add analytics, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WP themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) have built-in traffic optimization features)
With many themes, adding social sharing features to your content is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes provide built-in social sharing features)
WordPress Traffic System – Additional Configuration
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic system configuration process, are the components that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Legal Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to handle bad and good traffic but also for all the things that can go wrong when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or plan to), it’s important that your site remains compliant with all government legal requirements.
(Does Your Website Or Blog Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, see this article:
Post Categories And Tags
WordPress post categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better organize and index your pages.
(Post categories help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your website.)
As we strongly recommend in this article, your website’s tags and categories should be set up earlier on, during the Website Planning Process.
In the configuration phase, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post tags and categories have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts to visitors is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external sites find more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO can provide – see earlier section), allowing visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
404 Page – Don’t Forget To Configure It!
When visitors enter the wrong web address or click on a link pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they will normally be presented with a 404 error page …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found error page)
A 404 Error Page can be configured to funnel traffic to your functional pages …
(Configuring your 404 Error Page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page from your WordPress admin area.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your site expertly configured and fully set up, all you then need to do is publish web content on a consistent basis to begin bringing new web traffic organically.
The process of expertly configuring a WordPress site, however, can be quite involved and elaborate and requires the configuration and integration of a number of different elements and web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The kind of knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site can take some web professionals months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate the process. This step is addressed in the next section of our WordPress Traffic Automation Blueprint series.
This is the end of Part 3
To read more, click here:
This article is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials aimed at helping small business owners learn how to grow their business online using a WordPress website or blog and proven online marketing strategies.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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